Silver pastes used for making photovoltaic cells that are based on crystalline silicon, require high temperature processes. At firing temperatures greater than 700° C., Ag electrodes are formed on crystalline Si wafers with low contact resistance. With Si:H-based solar cells however, the processing temperature can not exceed 250° C., in order to avoid degrading the heat sensitive material in such solar cells. Accordingly, a need exists for improved compositions and methods for forming silver electrodes at temperatures less than 250° C.
Firing operations consume relatively large amounts of energy. And in many instances, firing constitutes a primary limitation in manufacturing solar cells due to the lengthy time periods typically required. Therefore, it would also be beneficial to provide an electrically conductive composition that was heat curable at temperatures less than 250° C. in a relatively short time period.